Democrat Ignorance: Why Iraq is Part of the WOT.

With the recently thwarted terrorist attacks, Democrats are once again attacking Bush for the war in Iraq...not only calling it a distraction, but blaming Bush for creating even more terrorism. This is nonsense! It's past time for those who are well-informed to remind people of the threat Saddam posed "regardless" of WMDs. It's also time to point out that Iraq didn't just become a terorist state as a result of the Iraq War as Democrats claim; it already was. In fact, the war in Afghanistan...all by itself, pretty much guranteed that Iraq would eventually become an even greater threat, regardless of what we did to Saddam. What many so-called liberals want us to ignore is that, even "before" 9/11, Al Qaeda and Al-Zarqawi were courting the Arabs and Kurds in N. Iraq in an effort to create AQs new affilate...Ansar al-Islam.

In August of 2001--a full month before the 9/11 attack, leaders of several Kurdish Islamist factions reportedly visited the al-Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan with the goal of creating an alternate base for the organization in northern Iraq. It was shortly after this that Ansar al-Islam was created using $600,000 in al-Qaeda seed money, with even perhaps as much as $35,000 donated directly from the Mukhabarat branch of Iraqi Intelligence Service. In other words, before the Iraq War, before the Afghanistan War...and even before 9/11, certain groups of Arabs and Kurds were colluding with Al-Qaeda and Zarqawi in an attempt to establish a new AQ affiliate in N. Iraq.

This collaboration was further substantiated during the Afghanistan War, when a document found in an al-Qaeda guest house by the NY Times discussed the creation of an "Iraqi Kurdistan Islamic Brigade" which vowed to "expel those Jews and Christians from Kurdistan and join the way of Jihad, [and] rule every piece of land...with the Islamic Shari'a rule." This alliance meant the creation of another Taliban-like organization within the borders of Iraq...with similar ties to AQ that the Taliban had in Afghainstan. After witnessing the devestating results of the Taliban/AQ alliance in Afghanistan, this just wasn't a proposition we could take a chance on seeing repeat itself in the far more dangerous, Iraq.

As the Afghanistan War continued on, it wasn't a coincidence that many remnants from the Taliban and AQ began to turn up within this newly created "affiliate." Human Rights Watch confirmed this when they visited the region and reported that hundreds of foreign fighters from Afghanistan were joining up with Ansar...some from as early as September 2001 (even before the WTC attack). Adding further evidence to this collaboration was HRW's own interviews of Ansar al-Islam members in PUK custody, who according to them, "described in credible detail training in al-Qa'ida camps in Afghanistan."

After Abu Musab Zarqawi was wounded by US forces in Afghanistan (before the war in Iraq even began) he found refuge in Iraq, and was treated in a Baghdad hospital owned by one of Saddam's son...after which he left with his Egyptian Islamic Jihad brethren, and later met up with Ansar al Islam already operating in Iraq. This action completely contradicts the claims of those who said Saddam would never ally himself with these "radical" Islamic groups for fear of being overthrown. If that were true, Zarqawi woud've never left Baghdad alive--and certainly would not have been treated in a Baghdad hospital!

In fact, this Saddam/Ansar/AQ alliance was quite reasonable...not just because of their shared hatred of America, but because Ansar was doing something for Saddam that Saddam could no longer do for himself: Ansar was attacking the two largest Kurdish factions (PUK and KDP) in N. Iraq...which Saddam could no longer do thanks to the No-Fly Zones. With this alliance Saddam could kill two birds with one stone; he could remove the Kurdish thorns in his side...and help finance this new AQ affiliate in his efforts to attack the West. Evidence suggests that the very creation of Ansar al-Islam was for the purpose of establishing a secondary base of operation should America succeed in ousting the Taliban and AQ from Afghanistan.

This was important because after the destruction of the terrorists camps in Afghanistan, the sanctuaries for these terrorists were running thin. Over the prior decade, AQ and their more radical elements had been getting kicked out of their own homelands and host countries--from Saudi Arabia to Egypt to Lebanon to Jordan. Even terror-sponsors like Syria and Libya no longer wanted these groups operating from within their borders. With Sudan offering up bin Laden, and Musharif in Pakistan joining the WOT, there were fewer places left for AQ to coalesce, especially after 9/11 and the retribution America was seeking. No one wanted these groups for fear the US would make their state the next target in the WOT.

The simple fact is the war in Afghanistan made Iraq a natural choice for these groups...even well before the war in Iraq began. Before GW Bush became President, ABC News and other media outlets were continually reporting that Saddam had offered santuary to OBL. Saddam already demonstrated a propensity for harboring wanted terrorists. He had provided safe-haven to both Abu Abass and Abu Nidal...two of the world's most wanted terrorists. A brief history of Nidal shows that he and his group were responsible for the killings of over 900 people in over 20 countries. Nidal was a leader in the PLO...and after leaving them, formed his own group, the Abu Nidal Organization, which operated at an even more violent level.

Nidal was once America's most wanted terrorist and a 1989 State Department report called his organization the most dangerous terrorist group in the world. In a headline from Jan. 8, 1999, Reuters reported that the "Guerrilla Abu Nidal Flees to Iraq." This wasn't necessarily a secret since intelligence had reported that Nidal may have entered Iraq 10 days before Bill Clinton's Dec 16, 1998 bombing of Iraq. Since the 9/11 attack, it was learned that two of the hijackers...Mohamed Atta and Ziad Jarrah, had very close relations with Abu Nidal...which may explain his untimely death in Iraq.

Further confirmation of these alliances may be found in the fact that after the first 1993 WTC attack, Abdul Rahman Yasin, the man convicted of mixing the chemicals for the World Trade Center attack in 1993, subsequently sought and found refuge in Baghdad, recieving both a home and a salary. Coincidence? Not if you believe this and what others have said about Ramsey Yousif being a former Iraqi Intelligence officer. Yousif not only helped plan the first WTC attack, he also entered the US on an Iraq passport.

The same was also true for Abu Abass. This "convicted" Palestinian terrorist...and the mastermind behind the Achille Lauro hijacking, had been calling Baghdad his home since 1994...under Saddam's personal protection. Abbas was the leader of another Palestinian terror organization (PLF) which, after leaving Tunisia, set up shop in Iraq. Saddam's relationship with Abass (and Nidal) was very convenient, as Saddam became one of the largest providers of finanical and material support to Palestinian suicide bombers, offering up to $25,000 to the families of these killers. Abbas became an intermediary between Saddam and the Palestinians, were both financal and material support flowed directly from Saddam to the blood-filled streets of Israel...with the PLF setting up terrorist training camps directly in Iraq.

Between the two Abu's...and the material support flowing between them from Saddam...and Hamas and Hezbullah, Iraq was already one of the largest terrorist havens in the world, complete with a terrorist training center at Salman Pak. For those who truly seek peace in the Middle East, especially between Israel and the Palestinians, that peace would never have had a chance with Saddam in power. According to a State Department report, the terrorists whom Hussein backed had killed or injured more than 3,500 civilians outside Iraq. This reason alone, made the ouster of Saddam a legitimate cause, especially since Saddam was prohibited by the Gulf War Cease Fire and following UN resolutions from associating with terrorists. (U.N. Security Council Resolution 687 paragraph 32).

The idea that Saddam and Iraq were some how disconnected from terrorists and terrorism before the Iraq War is one of the greatest frauds perpetrated on the American people. Saddam's continuing propensity for harboring and financing terrorists was well documented. Ansar's cooperative relationship with Al-Qaeda began "before" 9/11...and was only growing stronger. With the collapse of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, Iraq with Saddam in charge was guaranteed to become an even greater threat; made even more dangerous by billions of dollars in diverted "Oil for Food" money...dollars still being spent for weapons while Iraqi children went hungry; dollars that were being doled out to numerous terrorists and their organizations both in and out of Iraq.

Putting aside the WMD argument, these terrorist connections were the most significant reason that Saddam had to be removed. And for those who still aren't convinced of this alliance, you don't have to look any further than Clinton's own DOJ that unveiled a sealed indictment of UBL in 1998. The indictment, unsealed later that same year, stated among other things that "Al Qaeda reached an agreement with Iraq not to work against the regime of Saddam Hussein and that they would work cooperatively with Iraq, particularly in weapons development." These reasons alone...regardless of WMDs, made the removal of Saddam Hussein an immediate priority. Contrary to what Democrats claim, Iraq was and is very much apart of the War on Terror.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5571 (Ansar, AQ and Al-Zarqawi)

http://www.fas.org/irp/news/1998/11/98110602_nlt.html (1998 Usama Bin Laden Indictment)

Thanks CB. By the way...speaking of protecting our flanks, there is a great map somewhere around here that shows all the US military outposts in the ME. When you see this map, you can almost understand why Iran is in a frenzy. Not only are they covered in the East and West by Afghanstan and Iraq, they are slowly being surrounded from the North and South. I wish someone could help find that map?

"Nice piece. Do you have your own blog or site?"

No. I'm one of the few who doesn't:)

If we can convince most voters that Iraq is an integral theatre in the war on terror, this election is won.

This will take a major and sustained effort, however, because we'll get no help from the media.

I hope the RNC is conducting focus groups on how to quickly sell this message.

I have a post brewing for regimeofterror.com that will discuss and detail all of the times Saddam threatened attacks on America, his intent committ terrorist attacks against U.S. interests (concrete plans, actual attempts, etc.) and their capability in terms of (suitcase bombs, IED's, poisons, etc.).

If we can convince most voters that Iraq is an integral theatre in the war on terror, this election is won.

In order to do that, we ourselves must stop referring to Iraq and Afghanistan as wars. They are campaigns of a larger war. If we invade Iran tomorrow, we have not started a third war, we have begun a new campaign

With this mindset, everyone would have been screaming in WW-II when US forces landed in North Africa as part of Operation Torch. I can hear them now, "Why are we invading Africa rather than going after Hitler"? "What did Algeria ever do to us that we had to start a war against them"?

I wish people like Rush, Hannity, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, etc. would catch on.

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